Liaoning National Normal College

Liaoning Normal University is a teacher training university in Dalian, Liaoning Province, China under the provincial government. Established in 1951 the university is primarily responsible for educating teachers to teach in high schools around the province, though non-teacher training courses are offered. Liaoning Normal University was established in August 1951, as part of the newly founded People’s Republic of China’s drive to reform the teacher training system. Under the new shifan system certain institutions of further and higher education were established with the role of training future teachers. Financial incentives (such as tuition waivers, stipends and fellowships) were offered to encourage students to study at these institutions. The normal universities comprised the highest point of this reformed system and were the only institutions from which senior high school teachers could graduate. Liaoning Normal University was one of two normal universities (along with Shenyang Normal University, founded the same year) in Liaoning province. Liaoning Normal University remains the provincial centre for teacher training in Liaoning. The university comprises 10 colleges, divided into 25 departments, offering 39 programmes for those studying for a bachelor's degree, 36 for those studying for a master's degree and 2 for doctoral candidates. The Chinese government's recent move away from the shifan system had brought significant changes to the university. With more and more teachers are being recruited from regular universities, Liaoning Normal University (as with most normal universities) has expanded to offer a number of non-education-specific courses and to increase its focus on research. LNU now boasts, amongst others, a Ministry of Education sponsored Research Institute of Basic Education, an Ocean Economics and Sustainable Development Center and a center for researching the works of Sun Zi. Research originating from the university has resulted in 74 Science and Technology Progress Awards, 18 patents, and 190 contracts for technology or service transfer.